HOW WE MET

HOW WE MET

Jen’s Version:

First, let me tell you about the first time I saw Blake Nyman, because it took a while for us to actually meet. It was one of those amazing warm Salt Lake summer nights, and I was out at an outdoor concert with some of my friends – Courtney, Rachel, Sydney, and Blake Maxfield. I had recently been dumped, and Rachel claimed she could find me a new guy. She confidently told me she had an exceptional ability to pick cute guys out of a crowd, and since she was recently engaged she was more than willing to use her skills on my behalf. I was skeptical, but we started walking around and within minutes she said “There, that guy. Found him. You need to go out with him.” That’s when I saw him, Mr. Blake Lewis Nyman. I have a perfect mental image still in my mind of him standing there, leaning against a light pole with people gathered around him. They all seemed to be so enthralled by him, anxiously waiting as if he were about to say something profound and they didn’t want to miss it. (I’m pretty sure they were all girls.) He looked so cool. Another friend we were with, Blake Maxfield, recognized him and said “Oh that’s Blake Nyman. He’s a professional skier.” Alright, so now I had a name and an occupation, but how was I going to talk to him? I decided we’d just walk past him, thinking he’d for sure notice four pretty girls walking by. So we did. And he didn’t. So we walked by again. Still nothing. I tried one more time, but he still paid no attention to us. I felt I had already gone too far, I couldn’t actually go up and TALK to him. So I walked away, thinking that was the end of my love story with Blake Nyman.

It was an entire year later that I saw him again. Courtney had been invited to a party by some guys, and asked me if I’d go with her. I’d had a long day at work, but decided to go ahead and go. Courtney had played my wing woman many times, so I figured I’d do it for her. We walked in to the backyard of the party and started talking to the guy who had invited us. There were lots of people hanging out in and around the pool, and many more inside. As we stood talking by the pool, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a familiar face in the pool. It took me a second to place it, but I finally realized it was the very same Blake Nyman. I whispered to Courtney that I thought I’d seen him, and she confirmed it was indeed him, as she’d met him through one of his friends she’d hung out with. Blake and I kept our distance the entire party. Finally, as Courtney and I were standing by the door about to make our exit, Blake approached us to say hi to Courtney. They talked briefly while I stood there, and then finally Blake turned to me, shook my hand, and said “Hi, I’m Blake.” I’m pretty sure before I could even finish saying my name he was turning away. But we had finally met… 😉

Blake’s version:

I had an opportunity to meet Jen a year before I finally did. I unfortunately missed that first window, but as fate would have it, I was lucky enough to cross paths with her the following summer…

I had been working for a new company for about six months and we were a pretty close knit group. One of our friends and associates was on a reality TV show and so we decided to get together at our bosses house for a little party to watch the premiere. We shot some messages out, invited a bunch of friends over, ordered food and organized a party. According to Jen, she wasn’t too interested in the party, but her friend had been invited and she decided to go along as friend support… Lucky me. I remember being in the pool at the party and seeing these two girls walk in. I had met one of them before, but really wanted to meet the other. They came to the side of the pool to talk to a mutual friend, so I had a window. I don’t if what I did qualifies as an introduction, but some sort of timid exchange of words happened. Throughout the rest of the night we did our own thing, but I knew that I wanted to talk to that girl more. Nervously, I waited until the last possible moment and finally introduced myself to her as she was on her way out the door. But I did it, I had met Jen.

The following days after the party I began talking to a couple mutual friends, trying to learn a little more about Jen. Whats her story? Was she single? How do I see her again? Luckily, Utah is a pretty small place socially and I immediately started connecting the dots. The coming weekend was her roommates birthday party and we were both on the invite list…

The birthday night was much easier and more relaxed. We danced, we talked, had some fun and we exchanged numbers, which all happened on a Friday night. Now theres the “play it cool” rule where you have to wait at least three days to call a girl after you get her number. I was impatient cause I didn’t want to wait until Monday to call her and that isn’t really the best day of the week to ask a girl out. But I was let off the hook less than 24 hours later. Jen called me! She invited me to go hiking to watch a solar eclipse with a group of friends. It was a funny situation cause she thought it was that Saturday afternoon, but I knew it wasn’t until Sunday. So, to save her the embarrassment, I guess I had to hang out with her both nights!

Spending time together that weekend led into spending time together that following week. Which led into a camping trip that next weekend. Which led into spending all our free time together. We quickly became inseparable.

It’s funny how serendipitous things can be. When we met, my plans were to move back to California and continue working out there. But I quickly began rethinking those plans after spending some time with Jen. Now after two years, we’re both living in California and continue to be inseparable.

1 comment

Sounds like you two were meant to be together. I’m so sorry Lewis and I will not be able to attend the wedding. Since losing my bookstore I’ve had to go back to work to pay off the debts from the store and I have very limited time off as I just started working at this cop many 6 months ago. We also have a wedding this month for our youngest son Will, which, for some reason I am expected to attend! It’s in CO and since we live on the East coast we will need travel time. And, we have 2 more grand babies due in August so I know I will need to leave some days to visit them in MA and VA. Best wishes to you both and if you are ever out our way please call and come stay with us.